Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins get a statement win over the Avs!

Starting point is 00:00:01 The Pittsburgh Penguins had a dominant win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night. And for the Friday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to recap that win. Plus, get you all set for Penguin Senators on Saturday night. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:41 I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. And joining me, as always, is my co-host Patrick Damb. You can follow him on Twitter at Send him for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Unswerpenguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper. Download the app and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See sleepers, terms of use for details. So it's a Victory Friday pod here for you all. Penguins 4, avalanche nothing, and what I thought was the game of the year so far for the penguins. I liked how they looked against the flames earlier on. I liked how they looked against the Capitals.

Starting point is 00:01:27 But this one felt way different compared to those. I thought this was a total team win in all phases. Offensively, defensively, goal-tending and special teams. maybe we'll dump on the power play a little bit later. I don't think the power play was that good. P.K, though, was outstanding overall. And it's funny. I think the Penguins coaching staff might have listened to our episode on Thursday

Starting point is 00:01:52 because I was the one that said, I would not be surprised if the Penguins win this game. It would be a total Penguins game to win. And you were the one that pointed out how the Penguins were going to go about it. And they did just that. Yeah. Like you said, a happy VIII. Victory Friday for everybody. Also a happy 1989 day to all those who are celebrating. But you're

Starting point is 00:02:14 damn right, man. That was absolutely awesome to watch because like I said, and here was the thing. I actually had a little peek behind the curtain here. I actually had two columns ready to write this morning for KDCA for Penguins' perspectives. And one was in case of a win. One was in case of a loss. And it was all going to be about what I wrote, what we talked about yesterday. And that's this team's identity can no longer be one of high tempo, speed all the time, overwhelming forecheck. And that's not an indictment on the Pittsburgh Penguins. The league has caught up. It is the most copycat league of all the leagues. One thing succeeds and everybody tries to do it. Then when you win the first pair of back-to-back

Starting point is 00:03:01 Stanley Cups and the salary cap era, everybody's coming for that crown. So, yeah, the penguins are, just by nature, a little bit slower now these days, but the rest of the league has gotten faster. Everybody's fast now. It's just how the game is being played. And we saw last night exactly what I was talking about. With the exception of Riley Smith's power play goal, every goal was because this team committed

Starting point is 00:03:27 to defense. They were able to back check. They broke plays up in the defensive zone, which led to odd man rushes. They were willing to backcheck and disrupt things in the neutral zone, which led to them going the other way and getting a scoring opportunity. And it wasn't just the goals. It was all of their scoring opportunities. They were in the right place, at the right time, countering Colorado's system,

Starting point is 00:03:53 rather than trying to impose their own system. But they found a good mix where they weren't just sitting back. They were letting Colorado play into the system. the penguins wanted to play, and it shut down Colorado's attack. And you saw that during the second Riley Smith goal, right? Brian Russ makes a really nice defensive play along the boards, gets the puck to Evgeny Malkin. Oh, look, you have a 2-1-1 going the other way.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Gina with brilliant patience to wait out that avalanche defenseman, gets the puck to Smith, who makes no mistake. Boom, it's a 2-0 game. Going back to your point about the defensive aspect of the game, I really thought the penguins toned their aggressiveness down in this game. They let it come to them. They weren't going to get into a track meet with the avalanche. You don't want any team to really get into a track with the avalanche,

Starting point is 00:04:40 especially the Penguins with how old they are. But they let the abs make some mistakes. And boom, they capitalized all of them. I also thought the Penguins did a really nice job, keeping the avalanche to the perimeter for a lot of their scoring chances. Yes, did Tris and Jari have to make a few really good saves? Absolutely he did. But for the most part, I thought the Penguins did a really nice job,

Starting point is 00:05:02 keeping them to the edges of the offensive zone to make Tristan's job easier. And that's especially true on the penalty kill where the Amelich really didn't get many quality chances. I thought the penguins were decently aggressive on the PK. They took out that high danger area, that slot area as well. And it led to the result that they got. And I think this game overall, from a defensive standpoint,

Starting point is 00:05:26 this is the blueprint for the penguins to play defensively, at least, going forward. Or honestly, overall. And this also helps. who we'll talk about him later in the show, what Tristan Jari did. His job was easy. He didn't have to face a whole hell of a lot of grade A chances. So this is the formula I think the penguins need to win this season. They need to have a commitment to defense.

Starting point is 00:05:53 It can't be the penguins of the last decade where defense is kind of optional. You got your guys back there who are pretty good. your forwards aren't exactly selky candidates. But this is the kind of win where if you play this kind of system, it's a way to counter and neutralize the teams that are faster than you, that do have deeper rosters than yours. Because I'll say this much, the fourth line last night was okay. But you played a disciplined enough game that they,

Starting point is 00:06:31 they weren't really relevant. You didn't have to worry about them. You didn't have to go. You didn't have to wince every time they came over the boards because the style of hockey you were playing helps them be, if nothing else, not a liability. Right. And I also thought for this game,

Starting point is 00:06:50 yes, it was toned down a bit in terms of aggressiveness, but this wasn't a boring game. Not at all. I don't think the penguins are ever going to play boring hockey, like a one-three-one or Barry. odds hockey this year. Again, I don't think they're equipped to play that kind of hockey. But if this is the style that we see for most games, I think this team can win quite a few games a season, especially we'll get to the third line right now. If the third line plays like

Starting point is 00:07:15 that and continues to tell me to shut up, because everyone that listens to the show knows I've been fairly critical of the third line this year. And even after that game against Dallas, I saw some progress, but I kept telling people, okay, like, let's see, because I still think they need another score. But for this game, Redeem Zohorna was a one-man wrecking crew on that line. He was forcing turnovers in Colorado zone. He had a couple of grade A chances. One of them went off the post.

Starting point is 00:07:44 Another one from right and tight. If he just elevates that puck a little bit, probably goes in the back of the net. All right and shout out Drew O'Connor. I thought this was his best game of the season. He stole the puck twice in 20 seconds from both Devon Taves and Kelmikar. You can take a battle from that game, buddy. And then of course, Lars Eller, he gets to tap in the second player from the bottom six to get a goal this season.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Really nice game overall from the third line. It's great when this team gets depth scoring. And we saw that in this one. Overall, the third line last night, underlying numbers wise, when they were on the ice, the penguins had 62.5% of the shot attempts, one goal for, zero goals against, 53.3% expected goals score rate, 60% of the scoring chances. I'll take that any day. That was a brilliant game by them.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Just because they did exactly what they needed to do and that was provide a spark. They didn't have, yeah, Eller got a goal and that's great. And we're never going to complain about depth scoring. But every time they were on the ice, they didn't quite dominate, but they brought the energy they needed to bring.

Starting point is 00:08:51 Right. They weren't a liability. They weren't out there just defending. They weren't out there just keeping the Colorado Avalanche, Bay. They were taking the game to them. Like you said, Drew O'Connor, along with the two steals from Devon Taves and Kail McCar, menace on the four check last. Oh, absolutely. What we have needed to see from him since preseason. He doesn't, listen, he doesn't got to score 15, 20 goals. Again, wouldn't complain if he did. But all he has to do is do

Starting point is 00:09:18 what he did last night and just be an energy guy. Throw some hits, big on the forecheck, bring the speed. And this team will be happy with that. I know people are hearing. me say that. They're like, but Pat, they said, you said you don't want to play that kind of game. Not all the way up and down the lineup for 60 minutes. But when the third line's on the ice, that's your energy line. That's the line you want to go out there and say, okay, everybody else has been playing pretty well, playing responsible. Let the dogs out of the cage, let them go run. And that's exactly what they did last night. And it paid off both with a goal and setting up the top six to have success when they came over the boards.

Starting point is 00:09:56 I felt like I saw more shifts in the offensive zone from the third line last night than I did in the previous games combined that the Penguins have played thus far. The third line was cooking last night. And again, it's no coincidence that when Medeem Zahorna has come up, he's provided a spark and he should have made this team out of camp in preseason. There's no way you can send him down at this point with the way this line is looking at. Again, it's a small sample size. I want to caution everyone at least a little bit.

Starting point is 00:10:22 But right now, they're shutting me. I think they're shutting Pat up as well. they're shutting quite a few people up right now. And I hope that continues. I hope this line continues to cook to continue to shut me up. But I think that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get into Trish and Jari's performance

Starting point is 00:10:39 and why this was a big time game from him. Plus, Cindy Crosby, I think, heard a lot of us talking crap about him and he took that little personally on Thursday night. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Parkview Advance. As a business owner, you realize there are times when receivables, might fall behind. But that doesn't mean you need to fall behind on vendor payments, payroll, or rent. For more than 25 years, Parkview Advance has helped businesses secure working capital from $5,000 to $1.5 million. Parkview Advance can improve your working capital in as little as

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Starting point is 00:12:19 host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Damp. Again, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. So I said this in my tweet last night. Tristan Jari, take a bow, sir. Please take a bow. What a performance from the starting netminder for this hockey team. He flashed the glove on a save. I want to say it was in the second period where he kind of had a little bit of the windmill there where I was like, I don't know how you saved that, but that was a gorgeous save. Had another pad save where he stretched out a little later on in that period to rob another avalanche player. He was on his angles all night playing a group. aggressive in the net. And outside of those big chances, I know he wasn't tested enough just because

Starting point is 00:13:01 the Penguins played a really solid defensive-minded game on Thursday night. But when he needed to answer the call, he did. And then some, hopefully this is the start of him really stringing together some good starts. The Evgeny Malkin double minor at the end of the second. Yes. While the penalty Kill did a very good job for the most part, keeping Colorado out of the high danger areas and keeping Colorado to the outside and clearing the puck. There were a handful of moments where they got some good chances during that four minute power play. And every time they got a good chance, Tristan Jari was there. And I say this all the time. If there's one person in the Penguins organization who will never oversell things,

Starting point is 00:13:51 it's Phil Bork on the radio. And Phil Bork could not say enough about how well Tristan Jari was playing on the PK. And because I'm still trying to find ways to watch games on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh, found myself going old school last night and listen to the game on the radio and then watch the highlights this morning. But Bork had a lot of good things to say about how Tristan Jari played.

Starting point is 00:14:15 And then this morning, you know, sitting here with a cup of coffee and watching the highlights from last night. Never out of position, didn't really get pulled too far out of his net on any moment. He was aggressive at the top of the crease, and he was deliberate with his decisions. And that's the biggest thing for him. He's at his worst when he hesitates. I know we all still have PTSD for that Islanders series where he gave it away. Everybody wants to talk about how it was a dumb play.

Starting point is 00:14:45 And while it was, what made it worse is he hesitated. If he would have attacked that puck, just gone up and cleared it, that probably doesn't happen. It probably gets out of the zone and they play on and it probably turns into a four-over time game to where all of us are late for work the next day. It was because he went up, looked up, hesitated, and made the wrong play. Last night, definitive in his movements, definitive in where he wanted to go, definitive in how he wanted to attack the puck. So when he does that in his game, he's among some of the better goalies in the national.

Starting point is 00:15:15 hockey league. Yep, I agree with you on that. I thought he made the saves he needed to make. And when the avalanche were pushing, especially in that second period where the penguins have, let's say, they've struggled in second periods this year. He was right there and made some big time stop. So kudos to him. Hopefully that continues. I assume he's going to get the star on Saturday against Ottawa. More on that a little later on in the show. What's going to shot this segment, though, with Sidney Crosby. He was looking a bit rough these prior two games, but I think he took all that crap talking a bit personally for this one, had a really nice release to make it for nothing for the Penguins,

Starting point is 00:15:49 but basically put that game well out of reach at that point. But overall, I liked his aggressiveness in this game. He seemed to be more active compared to the prior two games. And whether it was five on five, whether it was the power play, I just thought he played a much cleaner game in this one. This is the level that we need to see from Cindy Crosby going forward. And I assume he will because he's been so consistent throughout his career. So I guess jarring to see him have a couple games off, but I thought he really returned to

Starting point is 00:16:17 form in this one. Clean is the key word there. You hit the nail on the head with that one. You look at a lot of his play over the past week or so. It was just little things. He was missing passes. Passes were going wide. They were going short.

Starting point is 00:16:32 He wasn't where he needed to be positionally in the defensive zone or the offensive zone. He was just a little bit off. And while he wasn't tremendous last night, let's not get that twisted. He wasn't great. He wasn't back to A plus Sidney Crosby form. Those little things that he was missing over the last week were starting to come back in his game. So that's an encouraging sign. And there was a shift in the third period.

Starting point is 00:16:59 He took, I think, two slap shots at the net within 30 seconds. I saw that, yeah. Of itself. I know I know that's going to get made fun of. Oh, he's ripping slap shots. Ha, ha, ha. But that's, like you said, the Sidney Crosby you want to see where he's aggressive. He's taking the puck to the net.

Starting point is 00:17:17 He's not afraid to shoot. He's not afraid to make the decisive decision. So on his way back, let's hope Saturday is another get right game for him. And he starts breaking out and becoming the Sydney Crosby, we know he can be. I feel like in that type of situation that you just described with those slapshots, he's feeling himself when he's doing that. Like, okay, I'm getting my groove back. I'm going to fire these on net.

Starting point is 00:17:40 While they may not go in, there's probably a good chance that they won't. I'm still firing these puck to the net, hoping for good balance or something like that. And I've been saying that for years that Sidney Crosby has an underrated slap shot. He does. He doesn't use it often, but when he does, he gets a hold of one. He can fire that puck with his slap shot. I think it's, I agree with you. I think it's a super underrated part of his game.

Starting point is 00:18:00 And I made a mistake. One more thing before we had to break. I was pretty critical of Ryan Shea last Friday against St. Louis. I don't think he was that good. he looked like a just a regular HL call-up, a little bit better against Dallas, still wasn't fully there. I thought he just enjoyed his best game as a penguin

Starting point is 00:18:16 on Thursday against the abs. He made a couple really strong defensive plays along the boards just throughout the game. I thought he was also very good at skating the puck out of trouble from the defensive zone into the offensive zone. He's starting to get a bit more comfortable overall as an NHL player, and he continues to play like that. I think he's going to continue to get more reps.

Starting point is 00:18:38 I was really happy with his performance, too. I was right there with you. I said he looked like just a typical HL lifer playing in the NHL, and man, he's shut us up so far. This is making the most of an opportunity, and this is what you want to see when you're in a position like the Penguins franchise is.

Starting point is 00:18:55 You want these guys who are not of a high pedigree, who aren't blue chip prospects, who aren't big name free agent signings, to show up, make the most of an opportunity, and be productive. And while Ryan Shea's not going to put up points, if he's going to be a solid, dependable fifth or sixth defenseman, that's found money.

Starting point is 00:19:18 I'm fine with that. Again, Ryan Shea, Penguins, Third Line, Mike Sullivan, whoever else, continue to shut us up, please. But now I'll do it for it. I'll gladly sit here and just sing their praises for an episode, for two, three episodes a week because they're doing well. As much fun as it is to have hot takes when they're struggling, I would just sit here and talk about how they can win the Stanley Cup again.

Starting point is 00:19:39 I don't mind Eating Crow at all on this show. I have done it so many times. I mean, heck, when this team signed Cody Cici, I thought the signing was terrible. I said as such on the show, and then he goes out and has one heck of a year for the Penguins before he goes and gets paid. Stuff like that, a whole bunch of other stuff. I am perfectly fine with Eating Crow and looking like a complete dummy at times.

Starting point is 00:19:57 I don't mind it. And I know you are the same there. But that'll do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's time to take a look at the Penguins next. opponent the Ottawa Senators, who dropped a three to two decision to the New York Islanders on Thursday night, an Islander's team that continues to win despite only having Ilya Sorokin and maybe two good forwards, which is just mind-boggling to me. I know, I can't stand the Islanders. I never will. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Sleeper. A new NHL season brings all sorts

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Starting point is 00:21:21 slea sleeper's terms of use for details in locational availability. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-o's Patrick Dam. So it's Penn Sends on Saturday night at PBG Paints Arena as the Penguins try to get back to 500. I actually should say both of these teams are trying to get back to 500. The Senators, as I teased, lost three to two on Thursday night to the Islanders.

Starting point is 00:21:48 And they're a bit banged up heading into this game. Tomas Shabbat, their best defenseman, he's going to be out for the next four to six weeks. So he is not to be playing in this one. And the Avalanche will also be down another one of their top defensemen. They'll be down Eric Brandstrom as he will be out. So that's a big opportunity there. Shabbat, he brings a lot of offense. He's also pretty decent in his own end,

Starting point is 00:22:09 but he's mainly known for his offensive capability. Overall, though, you look up and down in the center's lineup. It's a deep team, or it's a deeper team compared to last year. Brady Kachuk is awesome. Tim Stutzel is very good. Claude Drew is always the floor on the penguin side, going back numerous hears. Drake Bathurston, Dominic Kubelik,

Starting point is 00:22:26 who they got back in the Alex de Brinquet trade, Vladimir Teresanko, Matthew Joseph, Josh Norris, et cetera, et cetera. that top nine is very good, to say the least. And I think for this game, you might see a similar game plan to how the Penguins defended the Avlanche. The Senators are not nearly as good as the Avs. But with how much firepower the Sends have, I do think the Penguins are going to have to play

Starting point is 00:22:50 a little bit more of a defensive game if they want to win this one. Agreed. I also think there will be a little bit more opportunity to be aggressive, to play a little bit more of a faster game because you go without Brandstrom or Shabbat. that's two of your six defensemen. That's a tough pill to swallow. And while they don't have the deepest system just yet, they do still have some good pieces waiting to come up.

Starting point is 00:23:14 The other thing I look at is, and I feel like I say this a lot, is whether it's Jonas Corpusolo or Anton Forzberg, don't like those goalies very much. I think they're fine enough. I don't think they're bad by any stretch of the imagination, but you're not looking at an Andre Vazolevsky. You're not looking at, who's the Islander's goal?

Starting point is 00:23:36 I just forgot. I brain farted. Sorokin? That's it, Ilya Sorokin. Like, you're not looking at guys like that. So between losing two of their six better defensemen and a couple other injuries, there's a good chance for the penguins to build on what they did against Colorado. Play a similar game, but definitely take a little bit more of a chance when you have the opportunity.

Starting point is 00:23:58 And this could be a nice strong end to this homestead. Yeah, I mean, I say, of heading into that game against the avalanche, the Penguins, I thought, had the goaltending edge going into that game because I'm not really that high on Georgiev. They definitely have the edge of Tristanjori-Sorges, and I'm pretty sure he will, against one of Corpusalo or Forrestor. Corpus'Alo in general, they signed him to that big deal over the summer where I kind of laughed at it because Corposolo is getting quite a bit of money from this ends.

Starting point is 00:24:23 And I understand this is a team that's really trying to figure out goaltending. They've been a total mess at that position for the last several years now. But so far this season, he's 1 in 3.5-0 goals against average, 886-8 percentage. Not good, to say the least. That's not even close to the level that we saw from him last year in Columbus and in Los Angeles. So the Penguins, if he especially gets to start, I think the Penguins will have a real opportunity here of potentially lighting Corpusolo up. I hope I don't jinx that right now, but he hasn't been good to start the year. And I think this could work in the Penguins' advantage.

Starting point is 00:24:59 You play the way you did last night because you're not playing a Colorado Avalanche level team. The Penguins both did a very good job of getting chances in the first period and limiting the chances that Colorado got in the first period. This is a team that, like I said, they're losing a couple key pieces. They're going to be a little bit rattled coming into Pittsburgh. Golden opportunity to pounce on them early. Start the game the same way you did against Colorado. Play a little bit aggressive. get your shots on the net, try to build an early lead, limit them to the outside, make Tristan Jari's

Starting point is 00:25:35 job easier, have him get into a groove by facing three, four, five, easy shots, easy saves, get him into the mix, and extremely winnable game tomorrow night. Absolutely. I mean, again, I don't think the senders have really been that good this year. This is a team that's expected to push for a playoff spot this year with how good their top nine is. defensively, they're usually very good. I know they're about two of their best defensemen heading into this game.

Starting point is 00:26:01 So they're a bit vulnerable, and they also just haven't been that good to start the year. Historically, the Penguins have played really well against the Senators over the last decade. They're 19 and 5 and 5 in their last 29 games against the Senators, and especially at home, they are 11 and 1 in their last 12 home games against the Senators. No, I am not trying to jinx people. I'm just trying to give you all the stats that I got from the Penguins' wonderful people. team. This is a team that the penguins usually know how to play against. And one last thing, with how serious the Penguins took the avalanche on Thursday night. I want to see that same

Starting point is 00:26:37 urgency against the senators. They played with some desperation against the abs, right? Bring that same desperation against a team that's also below 500. Show me that consistency where you can start really straining together some wins. Agreed. That's the biggest thing. We know this as well as anybody. are no nights off in the national hockey league. None. I understand it's a lot easier to get yourself hyped up for a game against a Colorado, but you got to treat every game like it's a Colorado. You have to look at this and say any team can beat us on any night. And with that in mind, Otto was a young team, a young, talented team. They're looking to make their mark. And now with a

Starting point is 00:27:20 couple of injuries, they're looking to show that, hey, we aren't just a handful of pieces. We're a good young team. So this is a chance for you to push back on that. Agreed overall. So we'll have to see what the Penguins do in this game against Senators. Pat and I will have the recap for you all on Monday, plus get you all set for next week's games as the Penguins schedule. Again, it's going to start heating up here as we head into November. But I think that will do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this one. Again, we'll be back on Monday to recap this game against the send and see if they can get back to

Starting point is 00:27:55 500 plus preview the week ahead for the penguins. Again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all in a few days.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins get a statement win over the Avs!

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